Wesleyan College - Veterropt Yearbook (Macon, GA)

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THE PRESIDENTS tf “TWO YEARS AGO the notion of a female college was laughed at as a Platonic idea—a mere dream—an impractical fancy born in the reverie of some speculative mind, well meaning, perhaps, but utterly ahead of sober sense and prudent wisdom. A Female College ! Anomalous, absurd ! “The college has its enemies. In the beginning the very idea was denounced with a sneer and laughed at as farcical and ridiculous. Many persons periled the accuracy of their judg¬ ment and the soundness of their deductions on predictions of its failure ' Why should ladies linger amid the world of fashion and fans, hang enamoured over the color of silk, or pay their devo¬ tions to glittering trinkets, prefer the ornamental adjustment o{ a curl to the accessions of intelligence? ' ' The inexpressible pleasure of knowing what we did not know before: the consciousness of rising in the scale of being as our minds expand with knowledge; the light that springs up, illuminating every object and revealing beauties and harmonies where all was confusion and without interest before . . . these are some of the rewards which the pursuit of education presents. And shall such sources of unbounded interest and delight be shut from our daughters? Shall they be limited to sip bitter waters from the unsatisfying fountains of folly, if not of vice: while the pure, exhaustless, gushing fountains of knowledge are closed to their approach? ' ' —From articles and speeches of GEORGE FOSTER PIERCE.

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STUDENT PARLORS . f J’fS ' JJ •jfof fty M GRAND PARLOR CONSERVATORY HALL LOBBY

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: WESLEYAN COLLEGE “AS WE CELEBRATE the chartering of our college, we take pride in the fact that in so doing we commemorate the establishment of the first of all the women s col¬ leges. We do honor now to those men and women of a hundred years ago who had the foresight to plan and to execute this noble deed; to those who presided over the early destinies of our institution; and to those who have enjoyed the blessings of its influence from those early days throughout the years. “As we turn our eyes back in thanksgiving and pride to the heroes and events of other times, we turn them, too, toward the future. We would prove our loyalty by dedicating ourselves to the unfinished task. What of Wesleyan of tomorrow? Of the years to come? Of even another century? Shall we not resolve, as our forefathers sought for those of their day the best that could be secured, that we also see to it that those of the coming days have always the best?—the best that the past can hand dowm, the best that the present and future can provide. “We gratefully honor the memory of those who lab¬ ored for our generation; in loyal devotion to their labors we also dedicate ourselves to the generation that now is and to those that are to come. 1030 TO 1900 GEORGE F. PIERCE . . . . 1838-1842 WILLIAM H. ELLISON . . . 1842-1851 EDWARD H. MYERS . . . . 1851-1854 OSBORNE L. SMITH . . . . 1854-1859 JOHN M. BONNELL . . . . 1859-1871 EDWARD H. MYERS . . . . 1871-1874 WILLIAM C. BASS .... . 1874-1894 EDGAR H. ROWE .... . 1894-1896 JOHN D. HAMMOND . . . . 1896-1898 WILLIAM J. ROBERTS . . . 1898-1903 DUPONT GUERRY .... . 1903-1909 WILLIAM N. AINSWORTH . 1909-1912 CHARLES R. JENKINS . . . 1912-1920 WILLIAM F. QUILLIAN . . . 1920-1931 DICE R. ANDERSON . . . . 1931-